The Washington Post Is Tarnishing The Courts Of Hong Kong
The Washington Post invents some crude reasoning to explain a new aggressive anti-China move by the Biden administration.
Biden, testing Xi, will bar Hong Kong’s leader from economic summit
SAN DIEGO — The White House has decided it will bar Hong Kong’s top government official from attending a major economic summit in the United States this fall, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the matter, in the latest test of President Biden’s bid to reset relations with China.
The summit in questions is the yearly meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to which 21 Pacific Rim entities belong. Since 1991 China, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) and Hong Kong are members. The location of the summit rotates through the membership entities.
Chief Executive John Lee, along with 10 other Hong Kong and Chinese officials, was placed under sanctions by Washington in 2020 after implementing a national security law, imposed by Beijing, that enabled the targeting of pro-democracy leaders, tarnished the reputation of the courts and earned international condemnation as leaders sought to silence dissent.Lee, then Hong Kong’s security chief, was elevated last year to chief executive, handpicked by Beijing to continue what critics say is a broader campaign of repression in the once-semiautonomous city.
Let me first take issue with the description of the effects of the national security law, specifically the claim that it 'tarnished the reputation of the courts'.
Courts do not make laws but use the law to make judgments. How then could a new law or a change of a law have tarnished the courts?
A recent judgment by the a Hong Kong court proves that the Hong Kong security law has not done that at all.
The official hymn of Hong Kong is the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers”. After the riots in Hong Kong, which led to the implementation of the national security law, some protest backers came up with a new one called “Glory to Hong Kong”. (They probably consulted with Bandera followers who suggested 'Slava Ukraini' which means 'Glory to Ukraine'.
Searching Google and some other such service for 'Hong Kong national anthem' brings up the protester hymn. This has led to embarrassing moments when it was unintentionally played at international sport events.
Any use of the song in Hong Kong is prohibited and can lead to criminal prosecution. But the justice department in Hong Kong wanted to add a civil injunction against any one who makes the protest song available.
But a judge, hand-selected by Lee for national security issues, rejected to issue the injunction:
A Hong Kong court has dismissed the justice secretary’s request to ban the promotion of a protest song popular during the 2019 anti-government unrest, questioning the effectiveness of the move.In blocking the injunction bid, the High Court on Friday said the publication and distribution of “Glory to Hong Kong” was already punishable under existing laws, adding a ban might not compel internet search giant Google and other technology firms to take down the tune.
...
Justice minister Paul Lam Ting-kwok lodged the application last month in a bid to bar anyone from promoting the protest tune through “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way”.Authorities believed the ban could provide greater leverage in demanding that internet service providers remove content related to the song.
But Mr Justice Anthony Chan Kin-keung said in his 30-page judgment that the government’s expectations were misplaced.
...
While acknowledging Lee’s view that the song would undermine national security if it were allowed to spread further, Chan rejected the argument that the court should defer to the executive branch on the merits of the intended ban just because it related to the country’s safety.“It is too sweeping a statement,” he said. “Here, the court is asked to exercise its exceptional powers which affect innocent third parties. The court cannot abdicate its responsibilities.”
Chan pointed to the city’s “extensive and robust” criminal law system in questioning the effectiveness of a civil injunction in deterring offences.
Now again, has the new national security law in Hong Kong really 'tarnished the reputation of the courts'?
To me its seems it has not. In fact the court ruled against a misuse of the 'national security' argument in much sharper form than U.S. courts would probably do.
It was the Washington Post which, by making the claim, actually tried to 'tarnish the reputation of the courts' in Hong Kong.
That Chief Executive John Lee was put under U.S. sanction is one of the typical abuses U.S. foreign policies create. It is also not the real reason for keeping him away from the APEC summit.
What the Biden administration really intended with this move was to piss off President Xi of China:
The snub by the United States, which in November will host the annual summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders in San Francisco, comes in the midst of a tenuous thaw in the two powers’ frosty bilateral relationship. It could, some analysts say, induce Chinese leader Xi Jinping to skip the APEC summit — where a meeting with Biden has been anticipated.
If Biden, as the Washington Post's opening claimed, really has made a bid to reset relations with China, he would not have taken such a step. One does not try to find better relations by constantly acting against the interests of the other side.
To keep Lee away from the summit is one of the typical kindergarten moves the Biden administration is becoming famous for. The cumulation of such moves under Blinken and Biden has created a strong block of countries that stand united in opposition to U.S. policies and to a large number of the rest of the world developing more sympathy for them.
As Kishore Mahbubani once told his listeners during a speech in Harvard:
The era of western domination of world history was a 200 year aberration, it's coming to an end.As a result of that you've got to learn to understand non-western perspectives in the world."
"As someone who travels to 30, 40 countries a year, when I come to the US and I go to my hotel room and turn on the TV, I feel like I've been cut off from the rest of the world.
The insularity of the American discourse is actually frightening ...
It is time for the U.S. to grow up.
Posted by b on July 29, 2023 at 16:21 UTC | Permalink
Actually under English common law ( which if I am right Hong Kong still uses ) judges can in effect make law by setting a precedent where existing law is unclear
Posted by: M Williams | Jul 29 2023 16:52 utc | 3
Oldengineer@1
You don't need to tell a largely American, audience that Judges can make laws. They live in a country where the Supreme Court makes new laws and cancels old ones (often because they might 'offend' the long dead 'founders') every year.
It's time we started defining "international condemnation " more realistically. At present international means the US its satraps and countries looking for bribes (I repeat myself).
The truth is that most governments, most nations and most countries regard the internal affairs of the People's Republic as none of their business. Tell eight out of ten human beings that Beijing is mistreating Hong Kong's inhabitants and they will recall that the same thing has been said-and found to be cheap propaganda- about the people of Xinkiang, Tibet and most of China itself. So they will, being polite and unconfontational, suppress a yawn and change the subject.
Posted by: bevin | Jul 29 2023 16:59 utc | 4
As far as I can tell, the law is whatever the rich and powerful say it is....everywhere.
Posted by: JustAMaverick | Jul 29 2023 17:17 utc | 5
So the leader of China can come, but not the mayor of one of China’s cities. That’s some Blinkenesque or Sullivanesque childish bullshit. I assume Russia is banned. China should just skip it. Leave Biden to meet with the King of Peru.
Posted by: Sentient | Jul 29 2023 17:20 utc | 6
US media are a part of the Anglospheric syndicate, working for the shadow MIC/Financials/Energy neocons. They are spineless, corrupt, and racist.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | Jul 29 2023 17:22 utc | 7
Don't have the meeting in the US again, obviously. Leaving out members is awkward for an organization. This organization is awkward to begin with, having tiny island countries alongside behemoths like China and the US.
It seems that there will be trouble for a while with any organization that includes the US and China or the US and Russia.
Posted by: HelenB | Jul 29 2023 17:30 utc | 8
typical kindergarden moves by the biden admin... lol.. got that right b!
@ JustAMaverick | Jul 29 2023 17:17 utc | 5
exactly and to the point!
Posted by: james | Jul 29 2023 17:37 utc | 9
Something's Amiss. There is a war happening in Europe that is, interestingly, no longer getting coverage on this website. Not even a generic thread for two days in a row.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 29 2023 17:40 utc | 10
Sentient@6
As the Peruvian politicos have recently decided Biden is the King of Peru.
Posted by: bevin | Jul 29 2023 17:41 utc | 11
"We're an empire now, we make our own reality ..."
So how is that working out?
---
It really is striking how every time someone around "Biden" tries to re-start communication with our "enemies", somebody else immediately trots out some grave insult to sabotage the effort.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 29 2023 17:41 utc | 12
Salaam.I always held the view that the Magna Carta,was where English law originated! The government of the USA,ought to realize by now,no one elcted them to be exceptional,it's self annointed,thus dictatorial.Where is the democracy in that? Why mi-represent the truth? Hong Kong,like Taiwan are both 'parts' of China,and not sovereign states! The WaPo editors ought to be aware of this-no credibility WaPo!
Posted by: 4Q8 | Jul 29 2023 17:44 utc | 13
What the Biden administration really intended with this move was to piss off President Xi of China:
The snub by the United States, which in November will host the annual summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders in San Francisco, comes in the midst of a tenuous thaw in the two powers’ frosty bilateral relationship. It could, some analysts say, induce Chinese leader Xi Jinping to skip the APEC summit — where a meeting with Biden has been anticipated.
Posted by b on July 29, 2023
-------------------------------------------------
Biden is representative of the true face of the arrogance of the Western ruling classes. Britain seized Hong Kong during the First Opium War, and China's Qing Dynasty was forced to formally ceded it to the U.K. in a treaty in 1842. Until July 1997, Hong Kong was run by a British colonial administration which was mostly staffed by Brits rather than Chinese residence. In other words, Hong Kong did not belong to the British, they stole it from China. The US would like to do the same with Taiwan. The US, the UK, and I suspect most of the EU think they have some kind of God given right to lecture China about matters of democracy, human rights, and sovereignty: Clearly, history says they haven't earned that right.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 29 2023 17:50 utc | 14
Why would the leader of a country that wasn't a USA lickspittle sack rider meet with any of our leaders? They meet and meaningless platitudes are agreed to and then we do whatever we want, usually the opposite of what was "agreed" to at these ceremonial meetings
Posted by: A. Pols | Jul 29 2023 18:09 utc | 15
@ b who wrote
"
It is time for the U.S. to grow up.
"
I think this more applies to our species than the US in particular.
There are some within our species that think or have been brainwashed to think they are better than others and have the "right" to force their way of thinking on the rest of us. These anti-humanistic folks have built/maintained a social system with barbaric/fear based patriarchal force at the core. That social system is being challenged by other groupings of social systems/nations in our world that find the key elements of the Western social system abhorrent.
Grow up can also be evolution in other contexts and we hope to see it happen soon.
In the mean time we will keep railing against the injustice and talk about the changes we want to see in humanities future........PUBLIC FINANCE!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 29 2023 18:10 utc | 16
U.S. courts are frequently used to enforce foreign policy initiatives, through retroactive punishment if necessary.
The case of Charles Lieber, a Harvard professor who was one of America's most accomplished scientists, is one example. Lieber's career and reputation was destroyed in a bid to warn off academics from links to Chinese colleagues and institutions, using federal initiatives developed in 2020 to prosecute him based on activities engaged years before.
WSWS wrote earlier this week about American pilot Daniel Duggan, currently detaIned in Australia, who faces extradition and serious national security charges for training Chinese pilots in South Africa twelve years ago. It appears to be a stitch-up to warn off U.S. citizens from such contacts or associations.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/07/27/sgbd-j27.html
Posted by: jayc | Jul 29 2023 18:12 utc | 17
Ed@15
The events that you recall were all part of a long pattern in which the imperialists, led by the UK, sought to dismember China and pillage it.
No doubt others have reached the same conclusion but, in my reading of history, the 'rise of Japan' following the Meiji restoration, was enabled by western capitalists for whom the Japanese represented an allied striking force on China's doorstep.
In other words Japan was encouraged and assisted in its aggression which included the seizing of Taiwan and later Korea, as well as swathes of China proper.
It is another one of those occasions on which it helps to forget "the War": since 1945 Japan has been the most reliable and pliable of Washington's foreign assets Airstrip Two, the Pacific equivalent of the UK, the other US base off the coast of Eurasia.
In terms of China as the ultimate object of the imperialists Japan has been playing the same useful role since the last quarter of the C19th.
And now it is re-arming, in a major way under Washington's orders.
Which is where North Korea fits in- now, as it was in 1945, the state of the anti-imperialist, anti-Japanese resistance, fresh from its battle hardening war against Manchukuo alongside the PLA and, in its final stages, the Red Army.
MK Bhadrakumar has a fine piece of analysis/reportage today "Russia, China have a shared vision for North Korea."
https://www.indianpunchline.com/
Posted by: bevin | Jul 29 2023 18:16 utc | 18
"It is time for the U.S. to grow up." (original post)
Long past time, I'd say, and arguably so would a great many other voters who won't find much support in most of the likely establishment presidential candidates in either major party which should provide a huge opportunity for Trump if he can manage to grow up himself just enough to take getting elected seriously on an 'America First' MAGA platform of keeping our fingers out of everyone else's business and leveraging win-win relationships with the rest of the world to promote our common values and THIS TIME really clean up the D.C. Deep State swamp to create a legacy eclipsing any president's of more than the past half-century.
Establishment media, schmedia: Trump knows how to create his own news. Not entirely a pipe dream if he has the balls to do it.
Posted by: StirThePot | Jul 29 2023 18:18 utc | 19
"It is time for the U.S. to grow up." (original post)
Long past time, I'd say, and arguably so would a great many other voters who won't find much support in most of the likely establishment presidential candidates in either major party which should provide a huge opportunity for Trump if he can manage to grow up himself just enough to take getting elected seriously on an 'America First' MAGA platform of keeping our fingers out of everyone else's business and leveraging win-win relationships with the rest of the world to promote our common values and THIS TIME really clean up the D.C. Deep State swamp to create a legacy eclipsing any president's of more than the past half-century.
Establishment media, schmedia: Trump knows how to create his own news. Not entirely a pipe dream if he has the balls to do it.
Posted by: StirThePot | Jul 29 2023 18:18 utc | 20
The US acts like a spoiled little girl that didn't get a Barbie for Christmas. Enough said.
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Jul 29 2023 18:19 utc | 21
A. Pols@15
Because they fall into two groups- those who are likely to do what Washington tells them, and those who are there to keep an eye on them and remind them that the world is no longer unipolar.
Which is why 'Biden' has done what b describes- he wants to make it impossible for China to come and influence the proceedings.
Posted by: bevin | Jul 29 2023 18:22 utc | 22
There are some within our species that think or have been brainwashed to think they are better than others and have the "right" to force their way of thinking on the rest of us.
@ psychohistorian | Jul 29 2023 18:10 utc | 16
You tersely describe my own definition of fascism, a.k.a. a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government. Fascist authority can only flow from a heartfelt belief that certain peoples are better than other peoples, and can only lead to genocidal exploitation of the latter by the former. Your individual fascist often reveals his astonishing assholitude -- the certainty that he, personally, is better than you, in particular.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 18:36 utc | 23
Don't just place blames on politicians or MSM. It's actually the population at large that induces this kind of juvenile antics aboundantly displayed by politicians and MSM in the United States.
Americans are so, so, so jealous of Chinese achievements and progresses over the past 40 years that any bad mouthing of China wins votes, businesses, affinities, etc. etc. Freedom, democracy, human rights my foot! American people don't even know that they don't have any of these social norms in any better shapes than the average nations of the world. These are just excuses for hating China, in juvenile rhetoric, to make themselves feel good. So, all politicians sing the same China/Russia/Iran/N Korea bad, bad, bad song!!!. All MSM sell the same songs to peddle news feeds and printed products. Even churches and schools(up to university level) serve as echo chambers. It's now wholly permeated all of 'Merican meme. Even street hoods know who to brutalize without having to face consequences. Failure to do so by any public entities to demonize China is expression of weakness. This kind of silly antic/tactic by this Administration is considered clever, cute, and wins public supports.
Actually, Europe suffers the same mental anguishes. But they have a little better maturity and experiences. They have gone through these same antsy once before during the 40's, 50's, 60's under the thumb of whom they considered as culturally inferior then but now a Big Brother, the Americans. Being caught and surpassed, again by Yellow Hordes this time around is problematic, but philosophically more palatable than those across the Atlantic Pond would.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 29 2023 19:19 utc | 24
San Francisco? I'm pretty sure Asian leaders would not enjoy having to step around human excrement and "unhoused" encampments on the streets, nor witnessing blatant theft in stores. They certainly would question any right of US policy makers to judge others on "repression."
Posted by: norecovery | Jul 29 2023 19:20 utc | 25
@Aleph_Null, 23
I’ve been around here a good long while and can testify to the general orientation of a few names around here. So far as “fascist” goes, your name follows far more closely than psychohistorian’s.
@bevin:
It is one of the odder moments in post-WWII history where the North Korean government suddenly makes sense to people outside of Nirth Korea.
Of course, those people have always remembered their history and never failed to teach it. But now there is a gestalt forming that will allow other peoples to appreciate it, even in all of its horrifying severity.
Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Jul 29 2023 19:23 utc | 26
You tersely describe my own definition of fascism, a.k.a. a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government. Fascist authority can only flow from a heartfelt belief that certain peoples are better than other peoples, and can only lead to genocidal exploitation of the latter by the former. Your individual fascist often reveals his astonishing assholitude -- the certainty that he, personally, is better than you, in particular.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 18:36 utc | 23
--------------------------------------------------------------
Fascism is just capitalism on steroids. Generally, Fascism is an option of last resort for certain sectors of the capitalist ruling class, such as the industrial sector, which deals more directly with the working class than say, the financial sector.
When the "democratic shroud" of "democratic capitalism" no longer works to control the masses, fascism becomes imperative to avoid revolutionary change or the desire by the majority for real democracy. The German industrialist (often reluctant) support for Hitler and his Nazi Party before WW2 is a very good example. The US supported coup against Salvador Allende in Chile 9/11/1973 is another very good example.
The most recent example is the Nazi Government that came to power in Ukraine after the US orchestrated Maidan coup. In this case, almost the entire western bourgeois class realized that the "democratic shroud" in Ukraine had to give way to fascism in order to wage a proxy war against Russia.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 29 2023 19:23 utc | 27
It has been said here that English judges can "make" law. No, they can't. English law is Common Law, and Common Law is immutable; no-one can "make" it. All English judges can do is to "find" law. When English law judges are confronted with legislation, their job is to determine whether the legislation intends to impinge on Common Law, actually does impinge on Common Law, and if it does impinge on Common Law, whether it does so legally (i.e. consistent with Common Law).
Justice Chan obviously did not see this third condition fulfilled.
Posted by: SdeMonzambano | Jul 29 2023 19:29 utc | 28
Other than Japanese occupation 1941-45, the United Kingdom of Great Britain ruled Hong Kong from 1841-1997. Following the First Opium War, where the British used military power to force a treaty granting Hong Kong to Britain.
Under British colonial racial segregation laws, the majority Chinese weren’t allowed to live in certain areas of the territory; or have any significant role in administration. In 156 years of British rule there were zero democratic elections in Hong Kong.
Only after Hong Kong was handed back to China were democratic elections arranged. At which point a violent ‘pro-democracy’ movement emerged, funded by the US ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ it’s clearly a pro neo-liberal / anti communist, provocateur 5th column and nothing to do with democracy.
Inkan-Nazi: there has and will be a daily Ukraine War thread until idiots like you realise that the conflict is unwinnable for NATO Ukraine. It’s more than time to stop the needless destruction, belligerent rhetoric and pumping of arms into the conflict zone, while a peaceful negotiation is ignored. Real people are being killed for your belligerent and oh so righteous culture war. I might add that under British law, same sex marriage was illegal in British ruled Hong Kong and that homosexuality was illegal throughout the British Empire for the majority of its murderous, oppressive rule.
Now I do hope that you have dug deep and made a donation to Bernhard for the platform he graciously provides here.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Jul 29 2023 20:20 utc | 29
The guy sitting in the Oval Office claims to have more foreign policy experience than anyone who ever held it. Obviously, in his case, experience does not equate to knowledge.
50 years and yet nothing learned.
As the 0 said - don't underestiate biden's ability to f*** things up. the selection of his cabinet emphasizes that ability
Posted by: czechlist | Jul 29 2023 20:23 utc | 30
The translation of SLAVA is better rendered as HEIL
The Ukrainian counterpart to the Nazi salute "Heil Hitler. Sieg Heil" was "Slava Ukraini. Heroi slava"
It was explicitly launched as such by Dmytro Dontsov, OUN prominent intellectual in the 1930s
In English, nobody says glory except glory to God, or eternal glory
‘Heil’ is universally understood with the correct connotation
Posted by: Webej | Jul 29 2023 20:36 utc | 31
“ The summit in questions is the yearly meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to which 21 Pacific Rim entities belong. ”
It’s not China not turning up that will be the causus belli planned to manoeuvre us to a saving final war for the imperium. That will happen anyway as the Collective Waste does to China what it has to Russia. A banishment from civilised rules based order.
It will be when the other 20 break ranks with the Collective Master Races and stop attending such bullshit forums.
The Road To Freedom is Open.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 29 2023 20:41 utc | 32
B is correct about the role of courts in law and legal process.
Posted by: Cowboy #1 | Jul 29 2023 20:45 utc | 33
As the 0 said - don't underestiate biden's ability to f*** things up. the selection of his cabinet emphasizes that ability
Posted by: czechlist | Jul 29 2023 20:23 utc | 30
Don't forget, Obama's former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said that Joe Biden "has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
Obviously, that was during the Obama admin. It's been longer than that now.
Posted by: Phil R | Jul 29 2023 20:53 utc | 34
Trump won't make any difference . China lives rent free in his head.
As for Steve Bannon. Just got to watch the war room for 2 mins to realise that. Those God less commies.
Americans with any power are sick and mentally disturbed.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 29 2023 20:53 utc | 35
Look at the third paragraph from the Washington Post article that B quotes. The WaPo post does not mention that John Lee was elected to his position by an electoral college made up of mostly business and industry sector interests, in a political arrangement designed by the British and foisted onto Hong Kong in the last year's of British colonial rule under Chris Patton. Instead WaPo insinuates that Lee was selected by Beijing and the choice of selection rubber-stamped by the Legislative Council.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Jul 29 2023 20:55 utc | 36
The defining characteristic of American discourse is the lack of self-awareness.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 29 2023 20:55 utc | 37
Fascism is just capitalism on steroids.
@ Ed | Jul 29 2023 19:23 utc | 27
Alternatively, dialectical leverage may be had from broadening your perfectly adequate, simple definition of fascism. My interest in US American roots of 21st century fascism turns the spotlight onto manifest racial categories to which white US Americans (polity as well as politicians) find themselves superior -- Chinese and Russians abroad today, but especially Indigenous Americans and Africans stateside, everyday forevermore. USA, like the White House itself, was built on stolen land, via slave labor. Another word to describe such processes and attitudes is fascism.
Eau de fascism, the wellspring of woe for the whole planet, throughout history.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 21:04 utc | 38
I voted twice in my life. Once in an election when I was 18 and once in a referendum much later on and I'm just about to get my pension.
I simply refuse to pick a colour and play their game they call democracy.
It's ALWAYS somebody else's fault rather than the one party nation state that Americans and the British and the EU voters keep voting for. That have held the power for the last god knows how many years.
Voters simply refuse to accept any responsibility or accountability for their actions. ALWAYS look to point the blame elsewhere.
They simply refuse to see and admit what they are voting for, as long as they keep the "other lot" out. Humanity is ravaged by GROUPTHINK and stupidity.
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 29 2023 21:15 utc | 39
In English, nobody says glory except glory to God, or eternal glory
'Land of Hope and Glory' gives a good idea of imperial Britain at its height.
Posted by: ray | Jul 29 2023 21:30 utc | 40
I think that you are right. As is Ed.
Fascism is the last resort (of those we've seen so far, never underestimate the ability of ruling classes under challenge to devise new means of self protection) of capitalism. It is imperialism brought home.
As such, given the history of imperialism, it contains a large element of racism which both arises out of the experience of Empire ('If these people weren't inferior they wouldn't let us do this to them') and serves ex post facto as a justification for a very sordid business.
It's no accident that the roots of fascism in France lay in colonialism and anti-semitism or that the Italian version discovered in the southern peasantry an inferior race. And of course in the case of Germany not only the British but Jim Crow proved to be inspirations.
The real utility of racism in fascism is as an organising tool: its not easy to fill the ranks of the stormtroopers and squadroni with people who believe that all men are equal- Il Duce makes a good head of the Hierarchy and the bottom, grossly inferior to the supporters of Fascism, is constituted of Eritreans, Albanians, Libyans etc.
Posted by: bevin | Jul 29 2023 21:30 utc | 41
For those who travel frequently, and especially emigrated or lived an ex-pat USA life, the USA media is fascinatingly slick yet insular. Not even provincial, as the level of cynicism from Americans is pretty off the charts on most days, and USA has always been a nation of immigrants, but truly insulated from hearing & seeing the wider world of news. It's like the last way to make such a diverse group of jaded and distrustful "rugged individuals" fall back into line is a sensory deprivation chamber with a terror feedback loop.
I think Kishore Mahbubani is definitely on to something with the frightening causative factor.
Posted by: titmouse | Jul 29 2023 21:33 utc | 43
One example of China re-defining Western rules is in electrical technology. Our hide-bound electrical earthing system has turned out to be dangerous for Electric cars, because its relies on everything being inside
and at the same electrical potential.
In the event of any fault the car becomes live.
If our electrical system cannot be adapted to modern ideas, maybe our social systems cannot be adapted as well. In the recently colonised Iraqi region of Kurdistan, where you will remember Obama's Islamic State terrorised the inhabitanta into agreeing that none of the proceeds of this oil-rich region should go to local people, the concept of statehood has literally been cancelled.
Ultra Liberal laissez faire colonialism which keeps the lorries moving on British roads.
Libya has been dissolved. Yemen has been dissolved. Somalia and Sudan dissolved.
My point is that if Western Christian Liberalism effectively wipes out state responsibility completely , any system , from anywhere, that restores some kind of social order would be an improvement on total cancellation of services.
Nature hates a vacuum. If salt loses its flavour, with what will you salt it ? The system of Western exploitation can not be sustained.
Posted by: Giyane | Jul 29 2023 21:33 utc | 44
Thanks b for a great article.
Your cee cee pee cheque is in the mail. ;)
Locally, the papers and op eds are disappointed on the judgement as it seems way too convenient for the "little mistakes" to have happened too many times and Google refused to fix their search results which is obviously, factually wrong.
Posted by: A.L. | Jul 29 2023 21:33 utc | 45
Another word (besides fascism) we can use for the jaw-dropping boorishness of US Americans and their so-called leadership is colonialism. Though we US Americans are far too ignorant to comprehend the relevance of colonialism, it forms the cornerstone of how we imagine our role in the world.
That's how and why we took care of Tecumseh, to Mosaddegh, to Vietnam, and on and on. From internal to external colonial itches to scratch -- subhumans to subjugate or exterminate -- we US Americans never lost that colonial yearning called bloodthirst.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 21:35 utc | 46
fwiw. I agree with the definitions here of fascism. I would also note that those who shout others down for difference of opinion meet the criteria
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 29 2023 21:37 utc | 47
@48 alph null Doesn't colonialism require a transfer of present population to a conquered land? Maybe imperialist is better?
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 29 2023 21:42 utc | 48
Posted by: Echo Chamber | Jul 29 2023 21:15 utc | 40
"I voted twice in my life. Once in an election when I was 18 and once in a referendum much later on and I'm just about to get my pension."
-----------------
Bourgeois "democracy" is a pig sty according to Lenin, but part of the class struggle is to compete in the game and try to influence the political system on behalf of the working-class and its allies. The problem is when you develop a fetish for a "democratic" form over the interest of the working-class content.
Echo, echo, echo: (sorry, I just had to do that) I can tell you one thing, the ruling-class doesn't give a rat's ass if you vote or not, unless you are voting for them.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 29 2023 21:44 utc | 49
The Senate is debating preventing China from buying farmland or industries in the US. At some point, I think the patience of China will run out and they will demand payment for goods in yuan, not dollars. Their forbearance in buying US Treasury IOU's is remarkable. As with Hong Kong courts, I am amazed by the maturity of their approach amidst US childishness.
Posted by: Eighthman | Jul 29 2023 21:46 utc | 50
What a hegemon! We actually have a national holiday for MLK, just to stay home and think about how imperialism improves our lives...
But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam April 4, 1967
...but we don't, we can't think about what he meant when he said that, exactly one year before he was shot down in Memphis: April 4, 1968.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 21:58 utc | 51
“Kindergarten” is a good word for characterizing much American behavior involving relations with foreign countries. Foreign policy is determined by jackasses with serious cases of arrested development.
Posted by: Rob | Jul 29 2023 22:04 utc | 52
Ed 27
So true. The Internet exposed their criminality, so they create Nazism in Europe. The homeless youth are starting to rebel. In rural Wales you get pulled over and blood tested for smoking weed.
No more driving licence for you.
Fascism is the last resort against disaffection. The Islamic State was conceived as a last resort to suppress Iraqis' refusal to obey colonial rule.
Posted by: Giyane | Jul 29 2023 22:12 utc | 53
Fascism is just capitalism on steroids.
@ Ed | Jul 29 2023 19:23 utc | 27
Alternatively, dialectical leverage may be had from broadening your perfectly adequate, simple definition of fascism. My interest in US American roots of 21st century fascism turns the spotlight onto manifest racial categories to which white US Americans (polity as well as politicians) find themselves superior -- Chinese and Russians abroad today, but especially Indigenous Americans and Africans stateside, everyday forevermore. USA, like the White House itself, was built on stolen land, via slave labor. Another word to describe such processes and attitudes is fascism.
Eau de fascism, the wellspring of woe for the whole planet, throughout history.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 29 2023 21:04 utc | 38
-----------------------------------------------------------
Fair enough, but in early American history the issue of Native (indigenous) people and African People are two different things. One is just pure colonial genocide while the other is pure chattel slavery. Today, both may qualify under the term "fascism" but the word did not exist then, because fascism has a direct correlation with advanced capitalism and control of its corresponding class: the working class.
The British and European colonists of early America were not "advanced" capitalist, but rather mercantilists developing into capitalist. Slavery, Feudalism, and Capitalism represent different stages in the development of exploitive economic systems.
So, I disagree with your closing comment: "Eau de fascism, the wellspring of woe for the whole planet, throughout history."
Posted by: Ed | Jul 29 2023 22:16 utc | 54
Well, if the US thinks that relations with China are going to improve anytime in the foreseeable future, it will be as delusional as Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
Posted by: Jeff Harrison | Jul 29 2023 22:22 utc | 55
The Biden administration is at war with courts at home an abroad. They basically said the same thing about the US Supreme Court. Seems like they do not believe in a constitution legal systems.
Posted by: ATM | Jul 29 2023 22:29 utc | 56
Tannenhouser 50
British colonialism used local people , helping them to fight their local rivals , and when they were dead , slipping into their shoes. British colonialism is doing the same now in Ukraine for Tory Party Empire 2.
Ukrainians had some naive idea that they were going to get help to get in the EU . Cameron supported these poor, misunderstood Nazis in 2010 .
But Ukrainians had not studied the British system of conquest: help, conquer, subdue.
Posted by: Giyane | Jul 29 2023 22:30 utc | 57
Oh, and another thing. All that "dissent" in China was all astroturfed by US NGOs like NED - the CIA cutout.
Posted by: Jeff Harrison | Jul 29 2023 22:31 utc | 58
Inkan 1969 10
' Something is amiss '.
Russians are dying instead of Wagner mercenaries. But at the same time for Russia's enemies it is Poles who are dying , not Ukrainians. It is a matter of honour for Russia that they will deal with those who volunteer to fight Russia themselves, while the Ukrainian conscripts are just USUKIS brainwashed proxies.
That is tough, but not amiss. A duel is a matter of patriotism , of Russian values and Russian pride. USUKIS
proxy conscripts on amphetamines can be swatted like flies.
Posted by: Giyane | Jul 29 2023 22:54 utc | 59
@ Oldengineer | Jul 29 2023 16:35 utc | 1
No, English law was never based on the Ten Commandments.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Jul 29 2023 23:08 utc | 60
The Constitution is a contract between the various States to form a limited powers national government, retaining most powers..The national government, of course, wants to be a dictatorship, overrule the States, and establish laws that favor the big donors..It's the job of the Supreme Court to overrule such laws, which it has lately started doing again, not make new laws..Decisions like Roe v. Wade were illegitimate, with the Court making the law, and that has been overruled too...
I have litigated in SCOTUS...
Posted by: pyrrhus | Jul 29 2023 23:24 utc | 61
I have litigated in SCOTUS...
Posted by: pyrrhus | Jul 29 2023 23:24 utc | 67
If that's true you have my respect, and I don't care which side of the fence your on.
Posted by: Phil R | Jul 29 2023 23:46 utc | 62
@ pyrrhus | Jul 29 2023 23:24 utc | 67 with the US supposed balance of power...thanks
Given your reported knowledge, may I ask if, in your opinion, the creation of the Fed in 1913 goes against US law and can be abolished by the SCOTUS?
Do states have the power to make money or just the national level government?
Asking for a friend....grin/s
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 30 2023 0:49 utc | 63
I always thought of Hong Kong as a place of deeply entrenched, heavy-handed gangs. I would expect that Beijing would have had some work to do to clear that out. Not easy.
And the Hong Kong I visited was also an open city for prostitution. Eliminating prostitution was a major project for Xi when he became China’s leader, so I am sure that that was also on the list of things to do for Hong Kong. On a visit to Hong Kong sometime in the last decade, I stayed at a cheap hotel which was a one-hour hotel until after 10pm.
Posted by: HelenB | Jul 30 2023 1:11 utc | 64
psychohistorian | Jul 30 2023 0:49 utc | 69--
"Minting money" is the purview of the US Treasury. Any bank can--and have--print its own banknotes backed by its credibility. Before national banknotes were issued by the federal gob=veernment during the Civil War, all sorts of banknotes circulated, which were worth far more in the city/state in which the bank was located. The further away, the less the note was worth. "Hard" money was your gold and silver coins issued by the US Treasury. The idea of reserve requirements date to that age. And so, you have letters of credit, which are sophisticated international (mostly nowadays) instruments that have existed for centuries. A bank can't "coin" money, but it cane manufacture it in many ways.
Posted by: Oldengineer | Jul 29 2023 16:35 utc | 1
Supporting Fig leaf. English law, including the parliamentary system is older than Christianity in England and had nothing to do directly with the 10 commandments.
Originally in Anglosaxon England there were councils called witans which were essentially assemblies of elders or wise/powerful guys. They became a sort of Kings Council eventually but were probably similar to the Thingi in Iceland.
Also before the Anglo Saxons arrived there was well establish Celtic laws, which were very modern in their outlook especially for rights of women.
Posted by: watcher | Jul 30 2023 2:31 utc | 66
I wouldn't want to live in a place where they're so cavalier about forbidding speech. That said, it's none of our business.
Posted by: Redpill Boomer | Jul 30 2023 2:41 utc | 67
Regarding Chinese spies: (ex)FM Qin Gang was part of the CCP's CIA, while his mistress TV hostess was part of the PLA's MIA:
a big No No! to liaison unauthorized between two branches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3S6qnoHqzc
Stay up to date on the PRC!
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 30 2023 3:00 utc | 68
"As someone who travels to 30, 40 countries a year, when I come to the US and I go to my hotel room and turn on the TV, I feel like I've been cut off from the rest of the world."
It is not only non-westerners who think that; this mere European has this very strong impression whenever he goes to the US.
Posted by: laguerre | Jul 30 2023 3:06 utc | 69
It's time to tarnish China again...
U.S. Hunts Chinese Malware That Could Disrupt American Military Operations
The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to American military, intelligence and national security officials.
Ah, the code hasn't been found, but the Biden administration "believes" it's there and is from China. Right.
The malware, one congressional official said, was essentially “a ticking time bomb” that could give China the power to interrupt or slow American military deployments or resupply operations by cutting off power, water and communications to U.S. military bases. But its impact could be far broader, because that same infrastructure often supplies the houses and businesses of ordinary Americans, according to U.S. officials. [bold added--DL]
Does anyone else get the feeling that Americans are being set up for a possible false-flag takedown of the power grid?
Posted by: David Levin | Jul 30 2023 3:11 utc | 70
@ David Levin | Jul 30 2023 3:11 utc | 79
Chinese malware in the US? Impossible, according to David.
No need: the Democrats ARE native malware; LA Times July 20, 2023: "Would an occasional blackout help solve climate change?" https://archive.ph/TTqsF#selection-1319.1-1319.56
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 30 2023 3:27 utc | 71
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 30 2023 3:27 utc | 80Chinese malware in the US? Impossible, according to David.
I trust that you were deliberately exaggerating.
No need: the Democrats ARE native malware; LA Times July 20, 2023: "Would an occasional blackout help solve climate change?" https://archive.ph/TTqsF#selection-1319.1-1319.56
That is a good point. [Sigh]
Posted by: David Levin | Jul 30 2023 3:45 utc | 72
@Posted by: 4Q8 | Jul 29 2023 17:44 utc | 13
Magna Carta is statute law, which is any law written or passed by a king, parlement or such. Common law is the current collection of judicial rulings/findings that can be used as precedent. English Common Law became American Common Law as well as each State's Common Law when our Constitution was ratified, but English Statute law did not enter into American Law.
Common Law is the vast majority of the body of law, and includes the definitions of most words used in passed statute law.
Alabama's Constitution was amended a few years ago to no longer allow Common Law marriage. One must file the appropriate paperwork with the State to become married.
Posted by: barstool | Jul 30 2023 3:56 utc | 73
To me it’s simple. Xi should attend and hob knob with the other 20 Asian nations, have ZERO sideline meetings with ANY US Rep, no pictures, and no joint statements & fly home.
The perfect payback. Go to your host party, drink & eat, ignore him & go home.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Jul 30 2023 4:14 utc | 74
Something's Amiss. There is a war happening in Europe that is, interestingly, no longer getting coverage on this website. Not even a generic thread for two days in a row.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 29 2023 17:40 utc | 10
Jesus Christ you're a childish one. Do you have any updates to share? If not then shut up for a change.
P.S. there are puh-lenty of other sites that have daily coverage and analysis, including Substack authors like Simplicius The Thinker who has posted more in the past 2 days than he usually posts in a week. Pull your head out and grow up.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 30 2023 4:30 utc | 75
@48 alph null Doesn't colonialism require a transfer of present population to a conquered land? Maybe imperialist is better?
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 29 2023 21:42 utc | 50
There is also neo-colonialism such as what the French are doing in Africa. Further, the US has "colonies" as well but let's not get stuck defining things as though nothing ever changes. Colonialism ain't what it used to be!
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 30 2023 4:31 utc | 76
Hong Kong's government should print tens of thousands of "Trump WON!" T-shirts and give them away FREE to everyone in the vicinity of the APEC Summit.
Posted by: Retaining_H20 | Jul 30 2023 5:00 utc | 77
@ Retaining_H20 | Jul 30 2023 5:00 utc | 86 who is retaining more than H20, IMO
Thanks for the LOL!
If Xi is uninvited then maybe some other nations might not attend either.....
I also liked Trubind1 | Jul 30 2023 4:14 utc | 83 who wrote
"
Go to your host party, drink & eat, ignore him & go home.
"
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 30 2023 5:10 utc | 78
When isn't it stupid season in the White House these time's?
A sign of the occupants rapidly collapsing mind?
Posted by: jpc | Jul 30 2023 6:43 utc | 79
"Land of hope and glory"..."Old Glory"..."Slava" this, that and the other. Has anyone ever experienced glory in their daily life? I haven't. Perhaps this word is not as useful as those who deploy it would have us believe.
Posted by: sarcophilus | Jul 30 2023 6:45 utc | 80
Has anyone ever experienced glory in their daily life? I haven't.
Posted by: sarcophilus | Jul 30 2023 6:45 utc | 90
---
There is this strange phenomenon called morning glory. :)
Posted by: Nobody | Jul 30 2023 7:13 utc | 81
Jul 28, 2023: "China needles India again: What you need to know about 'stapled visa'"
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 30 2023 8:16 utc | 82
Inkan1969 | 10
There is a war happening in Europe... Not even a generic thread for two days in a row.
Here is a generic one for all concerned: "There are no significant developments on the fronts at the moment. I think this is due to the fact that the enemy has withdrawn its assault units to where they can restore their combat potential," Putin said.
Posted by: Nomad | Jul 30 2023 8:17 utc | 83
91 knock on wood that continues at my age. lol
5 of 54 african nations didnt attend the summit. After much USA pressure it seems it was for naught.
Posted by: hankster | Jul 30 2023 8:20 utc | 84
Does anyone else get the feeling that Americans are being set up for a possible false-flag takedown of the power grid?
Posted by: David Levin | Jul 30 2023 3:11 utc | 79
Absolutely. Same goes for Europe. The war against Russia and China is perfect cover for any kind of false flag attack on the Western population.
If at any time you need to suppress the people a bit, shut down the banking system, electric system, heating, trains, internet, etc, and explain it away with something as idiotic as Russian/Chinese/North Korean/Iranian "computer code". Of course any money that disappears or bank accounts that get closed won't be restored.
Or hold back the food supply for a few days and then explain that without digital ID's and digital money there's no way to get the food delivered. Voila, instant great reset. You can even say there was malicious Chinese "computer code", but that the digital ID's are 100% safe and effective against it.
I fully expect that when the little Ukraine thing is hushed away, covid is going to come back to the west, and much harsher this time. Or whatever marburg or malaria or plague they've spliced up in the american biolabs. They've had time to analyse the mechanics of the first round, including people's response to the various brainwashing operations, and they've had time to shut down alternative information channels and to purge unwilling doctors, nurses, politicians, journalists, police and army personnel. Leaving in the idiots, bootlickers and fascists.
In Finland, the feeling after joining Nato is as if someone shot a gun next to your ear—only a ringing silence. All the politicians who opposed Nato and covid are gone. All the websites and blogs that wrote about nato, globalism or covid are gone (several closed within one day of Nato membership). All the comment sections where people used to discuss things are gone. Silence.
Posted by: Mike | Jul 30 2023 8:55 utc | 85
Actually under English common law ( which if I am right Hong Kong still uses ) judges can in effect make law by setting a precedent where existing law is unclear
There is common law and statute law. Common law is created by judges and based on precedent and statute law by parlaiment.
Posted by: Jj | Jul 30 2023 9:44 utc | 86
Redpill Boomer @74: "I wouldn't want to live in a place where they're so cavalier about forbidding speech."
Yeah, imagine living in a place where you can lose your livelihood by using the "wrong" pronouns for someone or referring to them by the name on their birth certificate, or questioning the safety of the latest big money-making products.
Must be terrible.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 30 2023 11:30 utc | 87
Glory?
Has anyone ever experienced glory in their daily life? I haven't.Posted by: sarcophilus | Jul 30 2023 6:45 utc | 90
---
There is this strange phenomenon called morning glory. :)
Posted by: Nobody | Jul 30 2023 7:13 utc | 91
My moment of glory: Many years back I was picnicking with my girlfriend at an old Civil War coastal fortification. It happened to also be one of my favorite dive spots, so we went to one of the gun emplacements on top of the wall so I could point out some of the features near the old fort. Anchored a few hundred meters out was the biggest sailing yacht I'd ever seen. On the transom was painted its name, "Morning Glory".
Sez I to my girlfriend while looking across the harbor "I'll bet that belongs to some decrepit old rich geezer who had it sailed here by his hired crew to show off to his brand new barely-legal trophy wife."
I turned around and right there close enough to be invading my personal space was Rupert Murdoch with his brand new barely-legal trophy wife. The geezer was steaming mad. I guess maybe he overheard me.
Talk about a moment of glory...
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 30 2023 12:04 utc | 88
Uncensored …
I had never imagined that America would one day be plagued by censorship and misinformation. In 2020, when the world succumbed to a virus from China and fell into darkness, I decided to start Lei’s Real Talk. https://leisrealtalk.com/about-lei/The younger generation? … is of all times … re: Operation Mockingbird ...
Something's Amiss. There is a war happening in Europe that is, interestingly, no longer getting coverage on this website. Not even a generic thread for two days in a row.Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 29 2023 17:40 utc | 10
Jesus Christ you're a childish one. Do you have any updates to share? If not then shut up for a change.
P.S. there are puh-lenty of other sites that have daily coverage and analysis, including Substack authors like Simplicius The Thinker who has posted more in the past 2 days than he usually posts in a week. Pull your head out and grow up.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 30 2023 4:30 utc | 75
One must pity poor Inkan, I suppose. After all, that’s all he’s got.
Posted by: malenkov | Jul 30 2023 13:24 utc | 90
89
Looks "spooky".
Right out of the gate with Western approved pabulum.
Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Jul 30 2023 14:13 utc | 91
The British and European colonists of early America were not "advanced" capitalist, but rather mercantilists developing into capitalist. Slavery, Feudalism, and Capitalism represent different stages in the development of exploitive economic systems.
@ Ed | Jul 29 2023 22:16 utc | 54
I appreciate your historical discipline (and bevin's, above). It occurs to me (a student of earth science, mathematics, and theology) that the binding of terms to times seems like a self-inflicted weakness of social science. Which is too abstract to grasp, so I'll break it down lexically.
The definition I like most is "a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government" -- short, sweet, and general enough to facilitate extension. Other definitions of fascism seem so chronologically strict as to limit its application to Benito Mussolini alone. Sort of like defining "holocaust" or "genocide" in such a manner as to make words useless, if not meaningless. Dialectical leverage may be had from less historically strict interpretations of such words.
Genocide was rampant on my continent long before Raphael Lemkin coined the term. So was fascism. Continental drift long predates continental drift theory, and Andrew Jackson (on our 20 dollar bill) is a founding father of US American fascism.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 30 2023 14:25 utc | 92
Posted by: Giyane | Jul 29 2023 21:33 utc | 46
"if Western Christian Liberalism effectively wipes out state responsibility completely, any system, from anywhere, that restores some kind of social order would be an improvement on total cancellation of services. The system of Western exploitation can not be sustained."
<= No state can enter into an agreement, commitment or/and make a promise (AC&P) because the state is a non human entity. The state, a corporation, partnership, trust, or other non human entity is not an actor in any community, local, state, national, international.
The state is a proxy for the humans in charge. Humans not states make agreements, commitments, or promises [AC&P]. AC&Ps are social acts between humans. The state is a proxy for one or more human actors.
International law cannot exist between states, it can only exist as the sum of AC&Ps negotiated between humans. Responsibility for the state, must attach to the humans that have or had, within their power, the ability to control, direct or influence [CDI] the state. Illegal International acts committed by the state should be charged against the humans who CDI the non human state or extension thereof. The minute a human, directly or indirectly, becomes an actor or a co actor with CDI over activities of a state, a corporation, trust, partnership or other non human entity, is the same minute the set of human actors involved become personally liable under international law.
IMO, International law should enforce the AC&P made between the humans who run the state. <==the state is a get out of jail free card for human actors! Like wise local law should enforce the Agreements made between those who govern and those are the governed (Inside of the USA that means the Constitution). This means When a state interferes with or infringes on the interest, rights, privileges, immunities or negatively interferes with the relations between non infringing states that the International law attaches directly to those humans who are then in charge and to those whose past deeds when in charge were contributing factors. Similarly it also means those in charge of the state are personally liable to those the state is said to govern.
Practically this means, no non human group (nation state or corporation) should be recognized as existing, unless and until the charter and all defining documents concerning the relations of one state with any or all other states are embodied in all of the relevant state documents. Adopting these principles would make the persons who are in charge of the state personally liable for all illegal acts of their state, both internationally and domestically.
I believe a state, whose human actors have been adjudicated guilty under international law, should be disconnected from the nation state system, until the actors in charge are in jail or otherwise dealt with, and a new set of in-charge actors have accepted personal liability should the state they govern violate International law or constitutional constraints.
People believe the state is in charge? It is not, states are mere proxies for somebody else! Global monopoly power and wealth operating under cover of a proxy (a state or a corporation) are in charge. So the persons to be charged should be those in charge of the proxies (both government and corporate) because it is they who manage, supervise, control, influence and act for the states or corporations which violate human rights or International law.
the statement Posted by: ATM | Jul 29 2023 22:29 utc | 61
"The Biden administration is at war with courts at home an abroad. They basically said the same thing about the US Supreme Court. Seems like they do not believe in a constitution legal systems." <====supports: persons in charge, not the non human entity by name, should be charged.
Posted by: David Levin | Jul 30 2023 3:11 utc | 79
Does anyone else get the feeling that Americans are being set up for a possible false-flag takedown of the power grid? <=I have often wondered why Gulf Power sold to, or merged with, FPL? It certainly consolidates control over, those in the know?
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 30 2023 3:27 utc | 80 LA Times July 20, 2023: "Would an occasional blackout help solve climate change?" https://archive.ph/TTqsF#selection-1319.1-1319.56 Evidence and motive can sometimes predict events?
Posted by: snake | Jul 30 2023 15:02 utc | 93
The British and European colonists of early America were not "advanced" capitalist, but rather mercantilists developing into capitalist.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 29 2023 22:16 utc | 54
False. The most significant concept and (codified) legal instruments informing capital-ism are (1) private property ownership and rights, (2) usufruct, hence (3) joint-ownership ("shareholding") of liability and revenue generated by their incorporated "person" (company, plantation, or "going concern" as the Brits say"). You must very well know that in the 17th and 18th centuries, sole-proprietors ("mercantilists"?) and companies competed for buyers of raw (eg. labor), intermediate (eg. gun powder, molasses, PMs), and finished goods (eg. steel). You certainly must know that in the 15th century monarchs of Netherlands and Spain, for example, licensed joint-stock companies ("manufacturers") that financed "merchant marines" to import raw, intermediate, and finished goods from near and far east merchants. You might not know that, for example, in the 13th century governments of Genoa and Venice licensed joint-stock companies for import of Black Sea goods.
Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 30 2023 17:18 utc | 94
Genoa and Venice licensed joint-stock companies for import of Black Sea goods.
Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 30 2023 17:18 utc | 94
PS. license includes permission and regulation of debentures issued and traded by same.
Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 30 2023 17:25 utc | 95
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Jul 29 2023 21:37 utc | 47
i would add that people who shout down transparent lies are doing a public service.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jul 30 2023 22:51 utc | 96
Posted by: barstool | Jul 30 2023 3:56 utc | 73, --- "Magna Carta is statute law, which is any law written or passed by a king, parlement or such." Wrong: -- Magna Carta (1215),was a Treaty between The barons and king John, sealed at Runnymede, reaffirming the Common Law, extant in the kingdom of England, and before that going back millennia to the ancients of pre-roman celtic kingdoms,(IIRC). Parliament came into being in 1237(IIRC).The best vid on M.C (IMO)is this one > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDc7nzmffSY <
Posted by: Red | Jul 31 2023 0:13 utc | 97
The comments to this entry are closed.
Actually judges can make laws. English law was originally based on the 10 commandments and then added to by Judge Made law and'codified' (written down) by that Judge,to be imposed by the other circuit judges. This goes back to the 12 century.
Cheers, Oldengineer
Posted by: Oldengineer | Jul 29 2023 16:35 utc | 1